Sunday, March 23, 2003

I'm a little nervous about writing anything about the conflict in Iraq until it's concluded. The current 24 hour media tidal wave makes it impossible to filter the hyperbole from reality and forming anything like a clear picture of whats going on is futile. The sad thing is we are not going to really know what happened until it's over.

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Well it's started. Inevitable really. Whatever your view, lets hope it's over as soon as possible.

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

We get 'Casualty' and 'Holby City', the Americans get 'ER'. We get 'Mersey Beat', the Americans get 'Boomtown' and 'CSI'. Why is it when the Americans can make top quality dramas and we...well...can't. OK I accept we get it right on occasion but we more often miss than hit. Yes they make some right old rubbish, for example many US sitcoms are unwatchable as anyone who has seen 'Saved by the Bell' will testify, but in recent years American producers have raised their game especially in drama. Let's not count stuff like Friends as it's now well past the sell by. Oh and I forgot 'Heartbeat'...I rest my case.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

If the good weather keeps up, and it looks like it might, the two wheeled vehicular convenience is going to have to get dusted off and given a outing on the queens highway. Let's hope 'Mr Optimiser' has done it's business and said convenience starts in the morning...

Monday, March 17, 2003

Amazing. I spend the weekend at the in-laws, hence no blogging, and as I drive back into London I see more 4x4's in five minutes than in a whole two days in the middle of Herefordshire where they might actually be useful. It just ain't right...

Friday, March 14, 2003

Super Monkey Ball 2....excellent. Those of you who don't think simians in spheres is weird will understand, those of you who haven't a clue what I'm talking about will by now be probably calling the RSPCA.

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

As the French government continues to get up the nose of the Bush administration the House of Representatives have followed in the footsteps of an eatery in North Carolina by dropping 'French Fries' and replacing them with 'Freedom Fries'. "It's a small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France" apparently. It's worth remembering this has precedent as during World War 1 sauerkraut was renamed liberty cabbage, frankfurters became hot dogs and the German Shepard became the Alsatian. But as the article points out what's next? Belgian Waffles, Russian dressing? And if Donald Rumsfeld continues with his cackhanded diplomacy English mustard, Yorkshire pudding and Welsh Rarebit could be next.
Follow my chum Ed Brill as he tours the land that brought us a very long wall, Mao Tse-tung and Monosodium glutamate. As the saying goes..."Only Nixon could go to China".

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Looks like the three way console war is about to claim it's first victim, and it's not who many pundits thought it might be. The high street retailer Dixon has dropped the price of Nintendo's Game Cube to £99 with a free game in an attempt to shift the cute looking box. Depending on how the promotion goes Dixons could stop stocking the Gamecube altogether. This is a real pity as like it's predessor the N64 gamers have real affection for the 'cube and I like many would miss it.

Sunday, March 09, 2003

Don't get the wrong idea about me and Business Week I don't read it that often, but there was another article this time about the search for the perfect handheld device that offers a phone and PDA in one gizmotastic package. New to the market are the new Palm Tungsten W and Sony Ericsson's P800. Palm take their tradition route of taking a PDA form factor and lobbing a phone into it and whilst it looks cute in the way Palms often do you need of a headset to use the phone, Palm are going to release a 'flip cover' but you know it's going to look clunky. Sony on the other hand take probably the better route by taking a phone and adding PDA bells and whistles, although as result the screen will be too small for some. My choice not surprisingly is the P800, lets just hope it's a bit more reliable than my T68i.

Saturday, March 08, 2003

Business Week has a review of a book written by Barbara Ley Toffler who used to work for Arthur Andersen. That wouldn't normal raise much interest from me as books by business big wigs are usually a waste of trees but this one caught my eye because she was...wait for it...head of the Ethics Consulting Unit. As job titles go it redefines the word 'oxymoron'. It seems whilst Andersens was willing to sell so called 'essential' programmes to customers to forgot it might need some of these 'essentials' themselves. The culture of Andersens was devoted to driving up revenues at the exclusion, and this is the important bit, of anything else. "Billing Our Brains Out" she calls it. I think we can safely say Andersens aren't the only consultancy guilty of this. The question of ethics has got me thinking. Are ethics and business compatable or mutually exclusive? Whatever answer you come to the situation with Andersens should get us all thinking.

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

What’s the difference 'art' and 'craft'? Art should never repeat itself. Craft should always repeat itself.
With the South East of England now having more cars than people, getting around using said conveyance is becoming more and more difficult. So facing a trip to Bristol I had the choice of three hours in the car or an hour and a half on the train. I decided therefore to save the planet and my sanity and ‘let the train take the strain’ as the old jingle goes. I mention this because as someone who has a company car the temptation is to always use the damn thing, but having seen my journeys time to and from London increase steadily over the years Britain’s underinvested rail network has begun to look more and more tempting. As an irregular user I have yet to sample the problems of huge delays caused by train breakdowns, signal problems or the wrong kind of leaves on the line. So I give it a thumbs up. It is not a rosy though. It’s expensive for a start, a return to Bristol is £84 whilst getting to and from Manchester will see you £174 lighter, yes there are cheaper tickets if you buy in advanced, but the best part of a hundred quid to get to Bristol is hardly going cause a mass migration of car drivers to the train. Also most the rolling stock is well past its best, the promise of swanky new trains has meant most rail companies are letting the current inventory slowly fall to bits. Privatisation hasn’t helped either. With all this in mind I still reckon it’s a better bet when travelling to and from London and hey, you can’t write your blog when driving.

Sunday, March 02, 2003

Just watched an episode of the Channel 4 series 'Operatunity', a sort of Popstars for opera singers. Boy I'm impressed, these people sure can sing. You don't even have to like opera to see that every single one of the contestants, if that's what you call them, are infinitely more talented than their pop wannabe contemporaries. If there was any justice in the world people with this much talent would have all the fame, money and pictures in Hello and the talentless crowd appearing in Popstars et al would be instantly forgotten...oh but they have been.

Saturday, March 01, 2003

More celebs news. Actors would appear to love their Friday night curries in Hammersmith as much as anyone else and Daniella Nardini is no exception. If you're interested Ms Nardini starring in cult series 'This Life' as the feisty barrister Anna who had a penchants for booze, fags and blokes. I don't think she's a local as on the way back to the tube station I saw a poster advertising the fact she currently staring in Camille at the Lyric Hammersmith. If you're interested I think she ordered Tandoori Chicken...